The Scrap Corner...

Ok so a while a go... in February I joined a challenge to create an organized scrap room. I only had one wall and a corner to utilize in our Master bedroom. Since then, as most of us do, I have acquired more then the little corner can handle. So Yesterday before my hubby left he informed me he would like it if he came home and his room was his again. So... off to move the scrap corner.

I have decided to take our small sectional couch (more like a love seat) and put it back into our room for a reading corner. This will free up an area in our computer/gaming room for the scrap stuff. Well, I just finished getting all the furniture out here and I have to say I am pretty proud of my rearranging. ;) Though it is kind of cramped in this room now at least I have the computer at my fingertips while I scrap...hehe. I can watch the kids play outside through the windows from in here and I can hang out with the Hubby at night while he gets his game on. Wooo Hoo that means more scrap time for me!!!

I have to keep it picked up more now though due to the fact that it is a public room. So when guests come over they get to see all my scrappy goodness and I don't want them to see how my "creative mind" works... best in a mess...LOL!

Hello, my name is Grace and I am a Craftaholic!

Oh my I am! I have to thank my friend, Maggi over at www.katamommydamacy.blogspot.com for putting together a wonderful Monday blogging tradition. She has found such a great group of gals that are craftaholics and has invited me to become one. To read the interview just click on this link and have fun learning a bit more about me. Also check out all the other Craftaholics on her blog. It has been great getting to know everyone of them. I hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks so much again Maggi, I had a blast!

Here are a few more of my craft endeavors. The first one is one of about 30 paintings I did back in 2000. It has been a while since I have picked up a brush to paint an oil. The second one is a close up of some ribbon embroidery I thought myself to do for my wedding gown. My mother made the gown I embroidered it.


I

I have been busy!

I have not forgotten you all my life just has exploded lately. Busy, busy, busy me. So I have focused my creativity elsewhere this week and surprisingly enjoyed a week off from scrapping... WAIT DON"T LEAVE!!!! Now before you leave my blog because I said words that you can't imagine would com from my mouth... my projects are scrap related.

First off, I have to let you all know how honored that Scrapbook News and Review let me design the front cover to the May 2009 issue. I had such a blast working on this that I asked if I can do it again next month. So I spent hours in Microsoft word designing this front cover. I am really happy with it and even more impressed with myself for using a word processing program to put it together instead of a graphic one.

The artwork on the front cover is by two of our talented staff members, Irene Tan and Pamela Maas and the sketch is by Debbie Gaydos.

The other projects I have been working on is a photography challenge I am a part of. I have decided to practice and hone my photography skills by joining this challenge and working on it every week. The camera is probably the most important tool of a scrapbooker. Think about it. The camera is where our craft begins. Am I right?

This past week's assignment was to take a self portrait. here are a few of the ones I shot of myself. Got to love that ten second timer option on my camera. LOL. I can only imagine what the people on Main St. thought of me the other day. I was running back and forth between my lamp post and my car, where the camera was propped up on the open window sill of the passenger door. I need a tripod!

Three of these are the original shots and the last one has been edited due to the color in the third.



































































My question for you is how well do you know your camera? Have you tried to take self portraits?

Thanks for looking.

Daddy's Arms

My Daddy has to go away,

I pray he returns to me another day.

He tickles, hugs and kiss me at night.

My Daddy loves to hold me tight,

I feel safe and warm in his arms,

As I sleep silently with out harm.

My Daddy leaves soon across the sea,

God keep him and return him to me.

by L. Grace Lauer

This is one of my favorite photos of my daughter when she was two. We took the kids out for one last family day before my Hubby deployed in the summer of 2007. It was taken after a long day at our favorite local amusement park, The Nut Tree. Sadly due to the economy this little amusement park in our little town has since closed down. We stopped at the ice cream shop after a long day of playing and ridding rides. Trinity passed out in her Daddy's arms. My Hubby sat there for the longest time just enjoying holding her. It was quite a sweet moment, one I will never forget.

This layout was created with the week 14 sketch from The Scrappiest Blog. Liz does such a great job over there coming up with inspiring sketches for us all. Go check it out to see what the other Design Team members have created.

Four Year Old Princess

Happy Monday Everyone! I am so excited to show this layout to you. Like all of the layout I show you on Mondays this was inspired by a sketch from Liz over at The Scrappiest Blog. This weeks sketch was so much fun to create from. Though as I have said before I usually am not inspired by geometric shapes. I found this block style paper and got completely inspired. I was influenced by challenge from an online cyber crop over at Scrapparie.com. This challenge was to make your own patterned paper.
This is a photo of my sweet daughter licking the bottom of her candle from her birthday cake. Though the lighting in this photo is a bit off I love the photo itself. My daughter has been asking me to make her a pink page so I decided to do it monochromatic style with some influence from an Scrapbook News and Review publication call for May.

Journaling: (done in a pink Stampin' Up! marker)

Trinity is four years old. You call everything and everyone "Poppy" and you always have a "NooN" idea. You love to dance to Hawaiian music and practice rhythmic gymnastics. When in trouble you always give big hugs and kisses to get out of it. You are very expressive and have an explosive personality. You love to sing your own little made up songs. You zoom everywhere, my little social butterfly.

Ok so lets get rock'n on this description... it is going to be a long one!

Background: I started off with a white piece of 11 1/2" x 11 1/2" cardstock. Now I know it might be hard to believe but I did not have a light piece of pink patterned paper for this. So I created one. I know I said this was a monochromatic pink layout but ... hang in there here is what I did to create a pink bubble texture on this white cardstock. Note: Protect your counter and table by placing down a craft sheet or a protective table cloth.

1. I took a medium sized flat kitchen container about 9"x 7" and about 2" deep.
2. I added one cup of warm water
3. I added 1/2 a cup of liquid dish soap.

Yes yes I know ... you are thinking I am crazy on this one... stick with me here. I got this idea from a Crop Suey video. So you now have a dish with water so soapy you can wash dishes for a week. I then added several drops of red food dye.

4. Gently mix this in together.
5. I took a straw and blew into the water throughout the dish till they are about to over flow.

This created massive amounts of bubbles. Word of caution. Please ware eye protection...the bubbles pop and can get in your eyes. Once you have an almost overflowing dish of bubbles...

6. Take a paper towel and wipe it over the bubbles without touching the water at the bottom of the dish. This is to test the color of your water.
7. Let it dry. It will not take long and this will show you the true color of the water. Do not pop the bubbles on the paper towel either. Let them sit and pop on their own.
8. Add more color if you need too. Or water to lighten it. If you need to do this step test it again.

Once satisfied with the color then you will want to repeat steps 5 and 6 over and over (with the cardstock not the paper towel) till the paper is covered with the bubble texture. Try to add another color if you want to. Play around with this I loved it. I felt like my Mother was about to scold me not to blow bubbles in my soda, like when I was a kid. I even let my children play with this when I was done.

Taking a dark pink polka dot paper from Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday line. I cut it into 4 - 1 1/2 " strips and punched one of the long sides with a Martha Stewart scalloped edge punch. I then adhered them to the back of my white bubble splattered cardstock. Making my finished edge 12" x 12". This also left me over 1/2 a sheet of the polka dot paper to use else where on the layout.

The next three layers were two DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) papers and one more of the bubble sheet. The back square layer (a medium pink) was cut at 9 1/2". The bubble square was cut at 9" both were then punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch. The block print patterned paper was cut at 7 3/4" and then gently inked with a pink. Center each layer on top of the other an place it off center and closer to the bottom of the large bubble background.

The Photo: This was printed as a 5"x7" and I cut it down to be a 5" square. I backed it with a square of the dark pink polka dot paper. Here is a tip. Knowing I wanted a punched edge only on one side I cut the height of the paper first. I had a piece 5 1/2" high by 12". I punched one of the 5 1/2" sides with my edge punch I used around the background paper. Then I measured and cut it square so I was left with a 5 1/2" square with one side punched. I did it this way because the edge punches cut off about 1/4" - 3/8". Punching first let me cut the width of this piece exactly the way I wanted it.

I embellished this photo with some glitter rub-ons on the corner. For one reason. My wonderful daughter had already stained her shirt and you could see it... so a rub on here and a rub on there. Tada! no more stain.

Embellishments: I used some glitter and bling pink flowers to be the main embellishment focus. I backed them with excess papers and cut them out. Then I also used a couple of Prima flowers to do back them also. I added some Prima bling and a some glitter rub-ons. As I was layering them up in the corner I decided to save a few of the small glitter flowers and one of the large ones to embellish the title.

The Title: The "FouR" was created with Colorbok chipboard covered with DCWV paper. I then glitter glued the different shades of pink in the patterned paper with pink and iridescent glitter glues by Studio G. I sanded the edges and colored it with a pink Stampin' Up! marker.
I stamped the "Year Old" in black on the excess bubble paper and colored it in with a Stampin' Up! marker and added iridescent glitter glue. I popped these up with pop dots.
I added the rub-ons thorough out the page and doodled on the flowers with my black fine point marker to tie in the black in the rub-ons and title a bit better.

I am all about making my own stuff I love how unique it makes my pages... either when I am making paper or creating my own embellishments.

Well thanks for hanging in there with me... phew! That was a long one. I hope you have the time to play with this extremely fun bubble technique! Let me know how it turns out!

I would love to know, in the spirit of creating my patterned paper it made me wonder if any of you have you ever created your own and if so how?